Speaking at a workshop head by the department in Polokwane on Friday, Head of the Department Albert Tshidavhu, said: “We worked very hard in ensuring that we fight this mammoth of a task of putting the unemployed in the job market, albeit not an as easy ride.”

ESSA is a system that the department uses to encourage employers to register their employment opportunities in the system and also recruit suitably qualified job-seekers to their employ. The system also seeks to give job-seekers an opportunity to register their CV on the system.

“We have made a commitment to contribute to the creation of decent employment through inclusive economic growth and to respond to the strategic priorities of government through increased focus on decent work,” Tshidavhu said.

“This will be achieved through the enhancement of public employment services and intensifying inspection and enforcement services to effectively monitor and enforce compliance with legislation, strengthening social security and strengthening the institutional capacity of the department,” he said.

Tshidavhu said the department had also taken a conscious decision to go out and interact with job seekers in various arenas so that it develops and designs different approaches that may be used in providing them with support.

“Through the departmental inspectorate we are going to scrutinize the usage of unregistered Public Employment Agencies (PEA) because they delay and disturb the target we want to achieve, of ensuring that the scourge of unemployment is brought under arrest,” he said.

A little over 390 jobseekers in Limpopo were placed in various posts through the Department of Labour’s Employment Services of South Africa ESSA system in the past six months says the department This comes after the successful hosting of the Job Fair and Job Summit held in Polokwane in August where employers were urged to make use of the system to register their employment opportunities and also outsource suitably qualified job-seekers